EastEnders' Rakhee Thakrar wants to raise awareness

Rakhee Thakrar hopes her 'EastEnders' character Shabnam Masood's stillborn storyline will help to raise awareness.

Shabnam will find out her unborn child has died on tomorrow night's (28.08.15) episode of the BBC One soap and Rakhee has admitted she hopes it will encourage pregnant women to communicate with their midwifes if they suspect anything is wrong during their pregnancies.

She said: "I really hope this shows that there really is no harm in expectant mothers picking up their phone and calling their midwife if they are concerned. This is the message we are trying to get across."

Rakhee felt she had a "duty" to make sure she had fully researched stillbirths and so she spoke with Erica Stewart from the Stillbirth And Neonatal Death Charity and also visited several mother's to hear about their experiences.

The 31-year-old actress told ITV's 'This Morning': "I felt I had a duty to do everything I possibly could, although I spent almost every week on the phone to Erica Stewart from SANDS and I spoke to several mothers about their experiences. It was about having as much information so that I could reflect the reality of it."